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Today's 101.9 Features

Mariah Carey doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to performing for foreign dignitaries. In 2008, she earned $1 million to perform just four songs at a private show for the son of Muammar al-Gaddafi, the notorious Libyan dictator who died in 2011 (Carey later apologized, saying she was “naive and unaware of who I was booked to perform for”).

Now, the Human Rights Foundation is slamming the legendary pop singer for performing a massive two-hour show at Luanda’s Coqueiros Stadium in the African nation of Angola, calling out the country’s leader José Eduardo dos Santos as a corrupt dictator.

“Mariah Carey can’t seem to get enough dictator cash, reportedly more than $1 million this time,” said Human Rights Foundation president Thor Halvorssen in a press release, mentioning the Gaddafi performance. “Now, she goes from private performances to public displays of support and credibility for one of Africa’s chief human rights violators and most corrupt tyrants. It is the sad spectacle of an international artist purchased by a ruthless police state to entertain and whitewash the father-daughter kleptocracy that has amassed billions in ill-gotten wealth while the majority of Angola lives on less than $2 a day,” he added in reference to the show being sponsored by the mobile company Unitel, which is run by Santos’ “billionaire daughter,” Isabel.